Popular types and characteristics of dress shirt fabrics

Remember that the shirt is a mixture of three things: fiber, thread count and weave. These three things will produce the shirt’s look and feel; they will be what determine the end product. In this article, we will discuss most popular dress shirt fabrics.

Body

For men it is a difficult thing to know that what kind of shirt they are wearing or the fabric they are going to but will give them the comfort they want or not. When you are looking at men’s custom dress shirts, you need to remember it is a mixture of three things: fiber, thread count and weave. These three things will produce the shirt’s look and feel; they will be what determine the end product.

Twill

When you decide to use twill dress shirts, you will notice that it has a diagonal pattern, which gives it a unique look. However, the texture is tough and only looks good on shirts that have one color; thus, the patterns are far more evident. It is lighter than Broadcloth and Oxford but very robust; it also does not soil as easily.

Cotton

These kinds of dress shirts for men breathe quite well, are generally soft and are the most comfortable of any material. It is a good heat conductor; it feels and looks natural and has the greatest overall quality. Bear in mind that cotton wrinkles very easily. Thus, blended shirts that are more common are less expensive, free of wrinkles and can keep you plenty warm. However, they are less comfortable than 100 percent cotton. Besides, blended shirts should not be worn in summer because they rarely breathe.

Oxford

Oxford type clothing is very soft and durable, which makes it a very popular weave. It may be worn for either casual or formal events. It also has a basket weave appearance, which means the fabrics cross over in pairs. Pinpoint Oxfords are a high quality type of Oxford; it is lightweight with a fine texture. Royal Oxford clothing is geared toward the finer, formal occasions.

Broadcloth

This type of fabric is tightly woven and has a silky texture, which gives the clothing a smooth and formal look. In fact, this is the most formal dress shirts for men you can have in your wardrobe; it can be found in a variety of styles, colors and patterns. It is wonderful to wear in the autumn and spring months.

Poplin

This material consists of 100 percent cotton and has a soft content feel to it. You do not have to do much ironing to it either. It has a smooth look to it although the shirt gives a visibly seen fine horizontal ribbed effect. Since it can drape the body well, it is important that you get the right size.

Herringbone

If you want a custom men’s dress shirts, you cannot do much better than the Herringbone, which is a tightly woven fabric that also gives a fine ribbed effect. This patterns looks best on solid colored shirts since it can clearly bring out the shirt details. When compared with the Oxford shirt, the Herringbone is smoother and classier. It is not a commonly seen weave but certainly original.

Shirt’s thread count

On your custom dress shirt, you will see the tag on the back of collar. You will see an odd number; that is actually fabric’s thread count number. It lets you know just how many pieces of thread were used to design your shirt. The majority of dress shirts use between 40 to 160 threads to make a shirt. The higher the number is, the better the quality, meaning the softer and finer the finished shirt will be. A lower thread count tends to mean the shirt is of low quality. However, do not be entirely fooled since it could mean it is heavy fabric, used in the winter time.

Ply is another factor when considering the thread count of the men’s fitted dress shirts. Ply means the amount of thread that was twisted together just before the shirt was designed. Two ply means two strands twisted together to create a tough and smooth fabric. One ply is just one strand, usually found in low quality made shirts. Understand that a 2-ply, 80-thread count dress shirt is going to be better than the 1-ply, 120-thread count shirt.